


Knowers and Demons IV: Dreams with Open Eyes

by EnthusiasticFish



Series: Knowers and Demons [4]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28949649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnthusiasticFish/pseuds/EnthusiasticFish
Summary: The fourth part of my Knowers and Demons series. Tim is trying to prepare for the time when he'll have to try and fix the reality cracking around him. What that requires is not what he expects...and Tony isn't exactly happy about having to stand by and watch it happen...but he's not the only Watcher.
Series: Knowers and Demons [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116893





	1. Chapter 1

" _All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."_

_T. E. Lawrence_

**Chapter 1**

_He stood, looking over the edge of a precipice at a barren wasteland. Curls of mist wove around through the destruction. Then, out of that mist came dark shapes, some in attitudes of agony, throwing themselves to the ground and writhing...others in the guise of triumph, coming on and on, never stopping._

_Then, he saw another figure, far off on another precipice._

" _Who are you?" he asked, somehow knowing the other would hear him._

" _Who are you?" the other replied._

" _A knower."_

" _A dreamer."_

" _Is this_ your _dream?" he asked, appalled._

" _Yes. It's mine. All mine."_

" _This is wrong!"_

" _Why?"_

" _Look at all the pain and destruction!"_

" _Yessss."_

" _This is awful."_

" _This will be real, not just a dream."_

" _No."_

" _Who will stop me? You?"_

" _Yes!"_

_The other laughed derisively. He took a step toward the other figure...and he was right there, staring into the eyes of the other. All he could see were the eyes. At first, they were black and yet somehow glowing. He could see them in the absolute darkness that hid the details of his face from view._

" _How will you stop me? You're constrained by what you know. I_ create _what I know. I'm a dreamer."_

_He peered into the darkness...and the eyes began to brighten and swirl with the same mist he had seen out in the rest of the world._

" _Who are you?" he asked again._

_The eyes vanished as the other blinked. A deep breath and the world around them shivered._

" _Do you remember?"_

" _What?" he asked._

"' _In the real world, as in dreams..."_

"' _...nothing is quite what it seems," he finished._

_Then, the other stepped out of the shadow that surrounded him and his misty eyes took on a different form...and his face was visible._

Tim shouted and sat up in bed. He looked around wildly and saw nothing.

...nothing except Jethro crouched in a corner whining at something. Tim wasn't feeling much better. He hadn't expected that...and this hadn't been just a dream. He didn't have normal dreams anymore, hadn't for months. His dreams were more like...visits...to...other places. He got out of bed and walked over to Jethro.

"Hey, Jethro. Sorry that you got bothered by all this."

Jethro surprised him by growling.

"Hey! What's up?"

He reached out to calm him and Jethro snapped at him. Worried now, Tim looked at his hand. His tattoo was glowing brightly.

"Oh, great."

Jethro started whining again.

"What did you see, Jethro? What did you see?"

The German shepherd let out a high-pitched bark. Tim resigned himself to the fact that Jethro had been freaked out by something and wasn't going to let Tim help. He got up and walked into the bathroom. He looked into the mirror...and he stopped and stared for a long moment. He couldn't believe what he was seeing...and yet, it didn't surprise him somehow.

" _What are you going to do?"_

He saw the white eyes even as his own lips moved to ask the question.

"What am I supposed to do?"

" _Knower."_

Tim took a deep breath. He should have known.

" _What are you going to do?"_ his own voice asked again.

"I don't have a choice. Where do I go?"

" _You will know."_

"Of course."

He didn't want this...and he knew that he couldn't ask Tony to come with him this time. He had promised to keep him in the loop, but that was about this coming battle that would be for the world. This was different.

" _Liar."_

Tim grimaced at his reflection. Yes, he was trying to lie, but in truth, he might need Tony, but not to put him in danger. He would need him to be alive. If he told him about this and let him come along, that might change.

"I'm afraid."

" _You are a knower."_

Tim sighed. That was why he had to go. Not just _a_ knower. He hadn't asked for this, but it was his reality. He couldn't deny reality. He quickly got dressed, fed Jethro, left a note for his dog walker and left.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The ringing phone woke Tony up. It was much earlier than he had planned on rejoining the waking world. He sighed and reached out to answer his phone. He figured there was some new case that required them coming in at the crack of dawn...or whatever time it was.

"DiNozzo," he mumbled.

" _Tony, just ignore your tattoo if it starts glowing today."_

Instantly, Tony was awake.

"What? What's going on?"

" _Nothing you can help me with this time, Tony. Don't try to follow me. Just go to work like usual. I won't be there."_

"Hey! Remember what I said last time?"

" _I do. I might have to use some of your...life, but you can't help in any other way. I'd rather have you where you are. I don't know what might come of this."_

"Whoa! McGee, tell me what you're doing!"

There was a soft laugh. _"I'm going to fight against dreams...not my own."_

"As I recall, that didn't work so well for you when you were on your own with that before."

" _This is different."_

"Why?"

" _Because the dreamer will be making the dreams, not me. I'm not fighting my fears. I'm fighting his desires."_

"Huh?"

" _Tony, just stay where you are and don't worry if you feel your tattoo burning. That's all. I wasn't going to call you at all, but I thought maybe I should, and...and I hope that you can think of some excuse for why I'm not there. I'm tapped out. I freaked out Jethro when I woke up...because Greta was talking through me."_

"Greta? Again?"

" _Not in the same way. She was...making sure I was paying attention. ...but I was. The dreams I have aren't dreams anymore, Tony. They've haven't been for a long time. When I dream, it's different, and the dream I had was...something I need to stop."_

"You shouldn't be doing this on your own!"

" _It's the only thing I can do, Tony. I_ know _you're not supposed to be there."_

Tony hated it when Tim played that card. It wasn't like he could say that Tim _didn't_ know. He very well _could_.

"I hate it when you say that."

He could practically _hear_ Tim's grin.

" _Sorry, Tony. That's the way it is. I'm not exactly happy about it, either. Can't change it."_

Tony sighed in capitulation.

"Can't you at least tell me where you're going?"

" _No. ...well, maybe I could, but I'm not going to. I can't trust you to stay out of it."_

"Guilty as charged...but you know what?"

" _What?"_

"If I'm not a part of it, we can't watch a Road picture."

" _Yes, we can."_

"No. We have to _both_ be involved."

" _Since when?"_

"Since I just decided that right now."

" _I'm not telling you where I'm going...but if I'm not back tonight, could you feed Jethro?"_

"Sure."

" _Thanks. Bye."_

Tim hung up before Tony could say anything else. Maybe he _would_ be in the way, but that didn't mean that he liked being left behind when he could pretty much guarantee that Tim was going to be needing his help.

Still, he'd do as Tim asked...for now.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim was relieved that Tony had listened to him for once. This was going to be dangerous, and he didn't know if he had the skills to survive it. He really didn't even know exactly what to expect. He just followed that part of himself that knew what to do.

...and pulled up to a lake that he didn't think had existed in this place before. He'd just started driving west from DC, getting off on the small windy roads that always had some kind of surprise around the turns. This lake shouldn't be here.

Worried, he got out of the car and walked toward the shore.

He seemed to be alone, but he kind of doubted that was the case. He'd been brought here by someone...by that other...he was afraid of that other because he didn't know what would happen if he lost. ...and he wasn't even sure if he had to win or lose. Was this going to be another thing like with Greta?

A pair of eyes appeared over the lake and looked at him.

They weren't Greta's eyes.

He took a deep breath and clenched his right hand tightly.

"Is that all you can do?" he asked.

" _No. It's not. You're in_ my _dreams now, knower. ...and I control my own dreams."_

A wind came up and churned the water in the lake...back and forth...until it surged right at him. Tim put up his hand and shouted just as the water hit him and engulfed him.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony sat at his desk. He hadn't been paying attention to anything beyond wondering when his tattoo would start glowing, and what he would do.

"I do not like this," Ziva said. "Where could he be?"

"I don't know," Tony said. "He said he had some things to do. I'm not his nursemaid."

Ziva laughed. "You would be a terrible nursemaid, Tony."

"Exactly."

"Tony."

Tony looked up. There was Gibbs.

"Yeah, Boss?"

"My office."

Ziva looked at Tony with a quizzical expression. Tony returned it and shrugged.

"What is it, Boss?"

"Now."

Tony got up and followed Gibbs to the elevator. They got on, the elevator stopped...and then Gibbs turned around.

"What is it, Boss?"

"How long have you known about McGee?"

"Huh?"

Gibbs pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and showed it to Tony. It was Tim's three-headed dragon tattoo.

"How long have you known? ...and where is he now?"

Tony gaped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Tim felt himself battered about by the water. He tried to find the surface, but there didn't seem to be any end to the water. It was surging around him without end. He had to breathe...but he couldn't breathe.

Then, walking through the water toward him was the dreamer. As he walked forward, the water began turning to fire. Tim tried to back away, but he couldn't. It was like he was frozen in place...frozen with water and fire coming at him. His right hand was clenched tightly over his tattoo. He didn't want to summon them. It was his only advantage...and he wasn't sure what kind of advantage it actually was.

Then, the fire reached him and Tim's instincts took over. He threw his hand out and shouted.

"Three into one!"

The dragons burst out of his hand, swirled around the fire and the dreamer himself, rending the imagery into nothing.

Tim suddenly fell to the ground. The fire was gone. The dreamer was gone and the dragons faded away, the little wisps returning to his hand.

Breathing heavily, Tim got to his feet and looked around. There was an oppressive feeling in the air. Tim looked around, and he was on the precipice he'd seen in his own dream. Tim looked around, trying to find his adversary.

...but then, a tidal wave hit him from behind, knocking him off the precipice and down toward the ground.

Tim couldn't help it. He screamed out for help as he plummeted downward.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Before Tony could answer, he suddenly felt a burning sensation on his chest. He tried not to react to it. To his surprise, Gibbs looked around the elevator and then skewered Tony with a look.

"Have you lost your ability to understand English, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.

This was more mind-boggling than seeing Tim separating into three different Tims...but the burning wasn't going away and Tony took a chance. He unbuttoned his shirt and showed the tattoo Tim had given him. It was glowing. Gibbs looked at it and then at Tony.

"Boss, whatever is going on, I need to...to find him. I need to see if Tim is okay. That only happens when something bad is going on."

"Do you think you can track him down?"

"I won't know unless I try," Tony said. "Please, Boss?"

Gibbs looked at him for a long moment...and then, he turned on the elevator.

"Thanks, Boss."

"I'm coming with you."

"Uh...what?"

"You going deaf, DiNozzo?"

"No."

"Good. Let's go."

"What about Ziva?"

"We'll tell her later."

"She won't be happy."

"Your chest is glowing and you're worried about Ziva not being happy?" Gibbs asked.

Tony shrugged. "I'm getting used to it."

"We'll call her on the way."

They headed out of the building and Tony got into the car, trying to forget about how surreal it was that Gibbs was calmly discussing Tim being some kind of supernatural human being and seeing an invisible glowing tattoo.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim hit the ground. Hard. If this was a dream, it sure hurt like reality. Groaning, he rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. It was turbulent, full of lightning. It had a red cast to it.

And then he saw it.

The lightning formed the shape of his tattoo.

" _I dream. Do you?"_

Tim got shakily to his feet and looked around.

"Why?"

" _I dream!"_

The wave of water hit him again. He couldn't anticipate. He was a knower. That meant he knew what was really there. How did one anticipate what happened in a dream? The water forced him back to the ground, threatening to drown him again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

They were driving west out of DC, and Tony couldn't stop himself from staring at Gibbs. It went on for a few minutes before Gibbs deigned to say something.

"I think they call me a Watcher. Not my choice. You get recruited to these things and, well, you can't really say no."

"Who are _they_?"

"The others," Gibbs said and smiled a little. "How long have you known about McGee?"

"What do you think I know?"

"That McGee has a few extra abilities."

"Just a few? I'd go a bit farther than a few. He's a knower, Boss. ...well, according to Rhian, he's _the_ knower."

Gibbs' eyes widened slightly.

"McGee is?"

"Yeah," Tony said, a little surprised at Gibbs' surprise. "If you watch all this stuff, how come you didn't know about it? Did you just ignore all the stuff with Mongothsberd three years ago?"

"You know about Mongothsberd?"

Tony laughed. "Boss, I was _there_! Don't you remember when we got sent there, when _you_ sent Tim and I over there? I got this tattoo thing when we were fighting off the Proprietor there."

"So you're all the way in it, then, huh?"

"Only as much as I can be. Tim tries to keep me out of it."

"Why?"

"Because it's dangerous. How come you don't remember?"

Gibbs made a sound of annoyance.

"I hate when they do that."

"Do what?"

"Change reality."

"They made you forget along with everyone else?"

"I guess they must have. I don't remember sending you to Mongothsberd. I'm supposed to _watch_ and they don't let me do it."

"Why were you wondering where McGee was if you didn't know he was a knower?"

"I knew that he was involved in _something_. Didn't know what it was, and if he's not showing up, then, he's probably involved in something even worse than I'm thinking. Any sense of where he is yet?"

Tony shook his head. "I really don't. He called me and said he was going and that I couldn't come along."

"And you accepted that?"

"He's the knower, Boss. There are times when I just have to accept that I'm not really a part of that world."

"Like now?"

Tony shrugged and smiled a little. "I never could keep myself out of it for long. What about you? Why did you need to know where he was?"

"So I could watch. That's my job. I know you two went into the dream world for a while last year."

"But..."

"I don't see everything. I see what the world sees and let the others know...in case something goes wrong. I'm not allowed to get involved. I just watch."

"And you're okay with that?"

"I'm not given a choice. When you get into this, you follow the rules...no matter what the rules are. There are only two. You watch. You don't get involved."

"What happens if you don't obey the rules?"

"I've never broken them. That's why I let you and McGee pretend that there was nothing going on at that house beyond what it seemed."

"You sent Tim down to Ducky. Was that just a coincidence?"

"I didn't do anything."

"Does Ducky know, too?"

"Not really. He knows there's something going on, but he doesn't know what it is and he has the sense not to ask."

"So...wait...if you're not supposed to be involved and are just telling what you see...why are you coming with me to find him?" Tony asked. "Shouldn't you just be...watching?"

Gibbs just smiled.

"Felt anything?" he asked.

"No. West, but...but it's not anything that I can really...really feel. He's out there, and that's all."

"Maybe he's not."

"He is!"

"You've been on another plane. Do you think that you weren't really there?"

Tony thought about the scar on Tim's chest from when he'd had a hole burned through his heart...in a dream.

"There's no such thing as just a dream," he said softly. "...and that's what he was going to fight."

"What do you mean?"

"He said he had to go and confront a dreamer. I didn't know there was such a thing."

"A dreamer and a knower," Gibbs said. "How could they possibly fight and have a winner? It's more likely that they'll both lose."

"What do you mean, Boss?"

"I mean...think about it, Tony. Reality is in the conscious world. Dreaming is not. How can they really fight each other?"

"From what I'm feeling...they're managing it somehow."

Gibbs nodded and increased his speed.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim hit the ground heavily as the water disappeared again, gasping for breath. Finally, he got to his feet and looked around.

The lake was gone. The water was gone. There was nothing left of what had happened. Nothing left of the churning chaos that had surrounded and nearly drowned him. He stepped forward, carefully. Somehow, the complete silence was more frightening than that water rushing at him. If the dreamer was trying to keep him off-balance...it was working.

"Why are you doing this?" he called out. "I know you're still here! Why?"

Then, there he was standing in front of Tim.

The dreamer.

"The world is mine," he said softly. "Mine to do what I want with it. I'll destroy it and rebuild it every second."

"No. Why would you do that?"

The dreamer just laughed and vanished from Tim's sight. Tim looked around and the sky darkened. Clouds appeared overhead and the wind came up.

Then, he heard a voice from behind him.

"I think we're done with you."

Tim started to turn around, but he caught a glint of a knife. It plunged down into his back. Tim screamed and tried to writhe away. He staggered forward and then collapsed.

" _Can you die in your dreams?"_

"NO!" Tim shouted.

" _Let's see, shall we?"_

The dreamer pressed on the knife, forcing it further into Tim's back. Tim screamed again. He reached out, not toward the dreamer this time, but out...away from the pain and toward what he hoped was reality.

" _Not so easy, is it,"_ the dreamer hissed in his ear. _"You belong to me."_

"No..." Tim gasped.

With one might burst of energy, he flung himself onto his back and thrust his tattooed palm against the chest of the dreamer. There was a flash of light and the dreamer screamed...shaking all of the world around them as he did. He backed away and vanished from view.

Tim turned back over and crawled away, not knowing where he was going, just knowing that he couldn't stay here. The pain from the knife radiated across his back and as soon as he reached the trees surrounding the clearing, Tim couldn't move any further.

He fell to the ground and let his eyes close.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony inhaled deeply as the burning from his tattoo suddenly intensified. For a moment, he saw black spots.

"What's wrong?" Gibbs asked.

"Something...happened to Tim. I don't know what...but it must have been bad for me to feel it like that."

"What is it that you're feeling?"

"Tim...taking...energy, I guess, from me."

"What?"

"We've used it a few times. Tim doesn't like to because...well, because it could be dangerous for me, but...but that just means that it's probably worse than he thought."

"Then, you've got to figure out where he is."

"I don't know how to, Boss!" Tony said. "I never have. Tim is the one who..."

_Thwack!_

"You're a lot smarter than this, Tony. You have experience with it. You can feel when something's wrong. Figure it out!"

Tony really didn't know what to do, but he closed his eyes anyway. It's not like Gibbs would accept his denial without evidence of his lack of ability. He could still feel that feeling of his life being sucked away, but then, suddenly, it was gone. Completely gone. Nothing. Not even the latent connection Tony generally felt when it came to Tim. It was like there was a void in the place of it. Tony's heart sank. How could he find Tim if all that remained was a void...a void. A place where there was nothing...as if Tim's location was being covered, blocked...or something.

Tony focused in on that void. For a moment, he wished they were in that demon world where they could create their own reality because there was nothing of reality existing in that place...but then, there were all the demons that went along with it.

His hand started to rise before he even knew where he was thinking they needed to go in a specific direction.

"That way."

Gibbs just nodded and drove.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

After a while, Tim forced himself to his feet and staggered off in a random direction. The pain was nearly unbearable. All he wanted was to stop the agony. There had to be _someone_ around, someone who could help him. He couldn't find the knife in his back, but he could feel it embedded deep into his flesh. Every so often, the pain would suddenly flare up, as if the dreamer was pressing it further and further into his back.

The pain was so intense that he couldn't think clearly. He just walked. At some point, he ran into a tree and fell to the ground again.

But he couldn't figure out why this was happening. If he'd really been stabbed in the back, he'd probably be dead by now, but he wasn't. Did that mean it wasn't really happening? ...but even if it was a dream, he'd learned that dreams could still be real.

...but he didn't know.

The pain flared up again, and he screamed out, rolling onto his back, trying to pull something away...and he saw a dark shape hovering above him. He couldn't discern any details...because there weren't any.

It was just darkness.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"Turn off here," Tony said, gesturing to the small park in the middle of nowhere. Was it real? Did it matter if it was or not? Regardless, that was the direction he felt as though Tim was.

Gibbs said nothing for or against his suggestion. He just followed it. There was a lake where there shouldn't be a lake, but he stopped the car. Tony quickly got out and looked around.

"McGee!" he called out.

He tried to feel where Tim might be, but there was a nebulousness to the feeling he had. It was as if Tim was everywhere and nowhere.

Gibbs got out of the car, too, but he stayed where he was, not moving. Tony noticed and turned back.

"Boss?"

"You look. I'd better not go too far."

Tony nodded and couldn't help smiling just a little bit. It wasn't every day that he had more freedom than Gibbs...that _Gibbs_ was letting himself be hemmed in by rules.

But then, this was a strange world they lived in and Tony couldn't help wondering how it was that Gibbs had become involved in it.

As he walked out of Gibbs' sight, he called Tim's name more than once, but he didn't hear any reply. He still couldn't figure out where Tim might be. It was like he had stopped existing...which was a very worrying thought.

...then, he thought he saw someone, lying motionless on the ground. It was an indistinct shape.

"McGee!" he shouted and ran through the trees to the clearing.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim stared up at the black shape hovering over him. He feebly raised his hand, showing the weak glow of his tattoo.

" _That cannot hold me,"_ it said with a guttural laugh.

"Who are you?" he asked, gasping through his pain.

" _I am not a who."_

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony saw Tim lying motionless on the ground.

"McGee!"

He turned Tim over and checked him for any injury. He appeared to be fine...only unconscious.

Then, Tim's eyelids fluttered open.

"What are you doing here?" he mumbled.

"Getting you out of here, McGee," Tony said.

He put an arm under Tim's shoulders and lifted him to his feet. Tim slumped against Tony without making any resistance.

"Let's go. You can tell me what happened later."

"Not...over yet..." Tim said.

"It is for now," Tony said firmly.

Tim just let his eyes close all the way and said nothing against the idea. Tony dragged him through the trees, back toward the car.

"Boss! I found him!" he called out.

"Where?"

"Out in the trees. Seems pretty out of it."

"Bring him over. I don't think we should stay here."

Tony couldn't agree more. There was a bad feeling about this place. He didn't want to hang around any longer than he had to. He dragged Tim over and he could see Gibbs.

"Don't worry, McGee. Gibbs knows."

Suddenly, Tim started whispering. Tony couldn't understand what he was saying.

"What was that, Probie?"

Tim's grip on Tony got much stronger. He lifted his head and looked at Tony and suddenly, the bad feeling got infinitely worse.

Tim had no eyes.

Not black eyes. Not white eyes. Not glowing eyes. Not his normal eyes.

No eyes...just two bottomless pits of blackness.

Tony tried to let Tim go, but he couldn't. Tim held him fast and forced him to look into those two gaping black holes that seemed to be sucking him in. Tony felt his own eyes widening as he tried to lean away but couldn't.

"' _In every horror beauty can be found,'"_ he whispered and grinned. _"Come and see!"_

Those black holes seemed to get larger and take up the whole world. They were all that existed and there was no end to them. Tony couldn't hear anything. They swallowed up all sound and life.

" _In order to create, we must destroy!"_

The voice roared in his ears, swallowing up everything else.

Then, there was another roar. Multiple roars and a violent scream that threw Tony out of those bottomless holes and dropped him to the ground. He landed heavily on his back and stared up at the empty sky, breathing heavily. He couldn't even _think_ about moving. What had just happened? What was going on?

He heard someone running toward him and then flinched away from the hand on his arm.

"Tony. You all right?"

Tony blinked and his sight started to come back. He turned his head. Gibbs was leaning over him.

"Boss...what happened to McGee?"

"I shot him."

"What?"

Tony sat up quickly and looked over at the motionless body. He wrenched himself away from Gibbs and scrambled toward Tim. He rolled him over and saw that, not only were there no eyes, there were also no eyelids. Just gaping holes.

"Tony!"

"Tim," Tony whispered.

He felt sick.

But then, in a horrible moment, Tim's mouth smiled and then opened wide in a bloodcurdling scream that carried the force of an explosion with it, forcing Tony back.

Tim's body lifted into the air. He stood looking at Tony with those holes, body held upright by means of some unseen force. He looked like some kind of horrific marionette, his head leaning to the side. He just stared with that same frightening grin.

"' _In the real world as in dreams...'"_

The voice was nothing like Tim's. Nothing. It didn't even sound like it was coming from the body that had two bullet holes in the chest.

"'...nothing is quite what it seems,'" Tony finished, not even realizing he could.

" _What if there is no difference between reality and dreams?"_

There was a huge gust of wind that knocked Tony and Gibbs both backward. Tim's arms lifted with the hands hanging limply. Another screech pierced the air and then Tim vanished. Gone in a moment. There seemed to be some force associated with it because a shock wave flung Tony and Gibbs onto the ground.

They were left alone.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim found himself staring at the dark shape, almost forgetting his agony.

"What are you, then?"

" _Darkness."_

"What?"

" _Know your darkness in order to fight the darkness."_

Darkness vanished and Tim was staring up at the sky again. Was this a lesson? Another lesson? ...but why the pain?

As if to make the point more forcefully, the pain surged up and spread throughout him. He screamed out his pain. How long could he endure it?

He rolled over onto this stomach and tried to get to his feet. He couldn't. Instead, he crawled to a nearby tree and used it to help him pull himself to his feet. With one hand holding a low-hanging branch, he tried to find the knife in his back.

He couldn't. It was there. He could _feel_ it, but he couldn't find it.

"Help," he whimpered. "Help me."

" _No one can help you."_

Tim lifted his head and saw Greta and Death standing there, staring at him.

"Why?" he gasped. "Why?"

"' _In the real world, as in dreams, nothing is quite what it seems,'"_ Greta said.

"What does that mean?" he screamed out. "I don't understand! I don't know what to do!"

"' _Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.' Goya."_

"I don't understand!"

" _You will die in dreams if you cannot use them."_

" _Dreams are not false."_

"Help me," Tim said. "Don't just...just say these things. Do something!"

" _He does not know why he is here."_

Tim blinked.

"What?"

" _He does not know."_

Then, Greta withdrew into the folds of Death's cloak and the white and black swirled and was gone.

Tim reached out to the same two beings who had attacked him before, wanting help from any quarter, no matter who it was.

...but no, they were both gone.

Tim fell to the ground again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony sat up and stared at the place where Tim or Tim's body had been.

"What just happened?"

"Got me," Gibbs said. "Never seen anything like that before."

"It was like Greta," Tony whispered. "Like Greta in the real world."

"Greta?"

"The lady who didn't exist. Who had been dead for months. ...and the one who dragged us into the dream world. When she was in the house with us, she was like a puppet. Like Tim. Boss, is he dead? Am I too late? Did the dreamer kill him?"

Tony couldn't rid himself of the horror of seeing Tim dead nor of that feeling of being sucked into some fathomless world inside those gaping holes where Tim's eyes should have been.

"What did you see?" Gibbs asked.

"You shot him, Boss. You shot Tim."

"What did you see?"

"Holes where his eyes should be."

"What did he say to you?"

"What if there's no difference between reality and dreams?"

"That's all?"

"You have to destroy in order to create."

Gibbs came into his view and Tony stared at him with haunted eyes.

"He had no eyes, Boss. I've never seen him without eyes before. I've seen his eyes go black. I've seen his eyes white. I've seen his eyes glow. I've never seen him without _any_ eyes. ...and you shot him. Why did you shoot him?"

"Because he was clearly going to kill you...or worse," Gibbs said. "That couldn't have been McGee."

Tony stared at the empty space where Tim had been.

"Tony."

He couldn't stop looking at it, couldn't stop seeing that horror there.

_Thwack!_

"Tony!"

"What?"

"Can you still feel him? Your tattoo thing."

Tony put his hand over that area of his chest. It was hot to the touch.

"Yes," he said with some relief. "I feel it."

"That wasn't him. I need you to focus."

Tony took a few deep breaths and nodded. An idea struck him.

"Boss...what if we've wandered into a dream somehow?"

"Then, we still need to find McGee, and we're in more danger than we would be otherwise."

Gibbs got to his feet and Tony finally felt as though he could look somewhere else. He looked around.

"Boss...where's the car?"

Gibbs sighed.

"I think you're right, Tony. We're not in reality anymore."

"Or maybe we are."

"Meaning?"

Gibbs put out his hand and pulled Tony to his feet.

"That...thing..." He couldn't call it Tim anymore. "...it asked...what if dreams and reality are the same? Maybe we're in both. Reality...which means we can get hurt. Dreams...which means that logic isn't going to dictate what happens."

Tony turned away from where the car should have been and looked around.

"Um...Boss..."

"Yeah?"

"There's a big...black...thing...coming at us."

Gibbs turned as well.

"We may be in trouble."

It had wings. It seemed to be the personification of darkness. It was huge, enveloping them in night.

...except for the bright red eyes that were coming ever closer to them.

"I think we're in trouble."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Gibbs brought up his gun, although it seemed like a pitiful weapon against this large black thing.

" _What is wrong with Darkness?"_

Tony looked at Gibbs and then back.

"Wait, Boss."

"What?"

"Are you real?" Tony asked, forcing himself to look at the thing without flinching.

The red eyes blinked...and then the darkness turned away and flew (if that was what it was really doing) off.

"Um...this is going to sound crazy, but I think we should follow it."

"Why?"

"Because it didn't attack us. Most bad things attack...at least in my experience. The ones that don't..."

"Lead on," Gibbs said, gesturing. "I'm just the Watcher, remember."

Tony smiled.

"Are you going to get in trouble?"

"Well, I don't know how to get out of this. So I'm going to Watch what happens."

Gibbs managed to stay completely serious while he spoke. Tony was impressed.

"Okay. Let's go, then."

Tony started after the darkness. As he walked, he looked around. Maybe this wasn't all real, but some of it must be. The forest could be real...but the lake? He just didn't feel like that should be there. When he looked up at the sky, it seemed wrong, too, although he couldn't explain why he was so sure of that.

They walked in silence, always keeping the Darkness in sight.

"So...why you, Tony? Why did he pick you?"

"Because he didn't have any other option and then, when we survived it...I couldn't let him deal with all this stuff by himself...even if I don't have a clue what I'm doing and sometimes regret that I know this world exists..."

"That's why my job exists, you know."

"What?"

"To make sure no one has to deal with this but the people who can handle it."

"Who are they?"

"I don't know exactly. People who are immersed in this world who need eyes around the world to point out when some of this stuff bleeds into the normal world."

"Why you?"

"Because I saw something I shouldn't have seen and I didn't want to forget it."

Tony smiled. "Me, too."

Then, they heard a cry of pain.

"That's Tim."

Tony started to run, but Gibbs held him back.

"Or someone who _sounds_ like him. Slow down, Tony."

"No, _that_ is Tim, Boss."

Tony wrenched his arm away and ran toward the sound. When he got to the clearing, he saw the large thing that had declared itself to be Darkness hovering over something on the ground. It was blocking Tony's view and he couldn't see what it was.

"Is that Tim?" he asked the thing.

That shapeless Darkness looked at Tony with the red eyes.

"Is that the knower...or is it the dreamer?"

" _Is it one or the other? Or is it both?"_

The voice had not come from the Darkness. Tony whipped around and couldn't see Gibbs anymore. It was like he was suddenly trapped in a miasma of fog.

"Boss!" he shouted.

Then, through the fog stepped a man. Even with all he'd seen, Tony wanted to scream and recoil in terror.

...because it was Tim walking toward him, only it wasn't. It was Tim without eyes. It was Tim with fog coming out of the space where eyes should be. It was Tim if he had been created by someone who just didn't quite get what a human being should look like. He backed away from the approaching figure, feeling Darkness behind him and hearing strange whispers.

There was a flurry of motion behind him, and Tony spun around in time to see Tim burst through the Darkness, his hand outstretched, his eyes bright green and almost glowing, his face in a rictus of pain. At the same time, Tony felt himself grow suddenly weaker. He fell to the ground but kept watching as Tim pressed his hand on the chest of the horror-movie Tim. The other Tim laughed, screamed and then vanished.

...and the other Tim fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The weakness vanished and Tony ran over and turned Tim onto his back.

"What are you doing here, Tony?" Tim ground out. "Why are you here?"

"What's wrong, Tim?"

"Get it out! Get it out!" he screamed.

"Get _what_ out?"

"Get it out of my back! I can't stand it anymore!" He screamed again.

"Tim, look at me!" Tony said.

Tim's eyes opened and they were real eyes...thank goodness.

"You have to tell me what's going on, Tim, because I don't have a clue."

"The knife...the knife. Get it out of my back! He...stabbed me and...I can't find it!"

Tony rolled Tim back onto his stomach and stared as hard as he could...to no avail.

"I don't see a knife there, Tim."

"It's there! Get it out!"

Tony felt helpless. He could see that Tim was in absolute agony, but he couldn't see anything that would cause it.

 _If it's a dream...would I see it with my eyes open?_ Tony thought to himself.

Well, it was worth a shot. He couldn't see anything with his eyes open. Nothing here made any sense. He closed his eyes tightly and then reached out and rubbed his hands over Tim's back, searching for a knife.

...and then, suddenly, he found it. When he touched it, Tim whimpered.

"Will pulling it out kill you, Tim?"

"I don't care! Just take it out!"

Tony kept his eyes closed, grasped the knife firmly and yanked, hoping against hope that this wasn't going to kill Tim. Tim reared back and screamed again. Tony opened his eyes and looked at his hand. He was holding a bloody knife. He looked at Tim's back. It was covered with blood. Was it real blood or dream blood? He'd seen Tim bleed without having a real wound before.

Tony decided that it didn't matter. He dropped the knife onto the ground and pressed his hands over the wound. Tim had gone limp, his respiration fast and uneven. Tony spared a moment and looked at Tim's hand. His tattooed hand was clenched into a tight fist that belied the lack of tension in the rest of his body.

"Tim? Can you hear me? ...did I kill you?"

There was no sound for a few moments and then Tim groaned. His eyelids fluttered and he looked at Tony.

"What are you doing here?"

"Saving your butt. What do you think?"

"No...here...right now..."

Tony furrowed his brow.

"What do you mean, McGee?"

"Timing...it's wrong."

"I don't get it."

Tim pushed himself up on shaking arms, forcing Tony to move back, and then sat looking around.

"Neither do I. Nothing here makes sense. I'm not calling the shots, here, Tony. He is...but I don't know _why_ he is. Why are dreams taking precedence over reality? That doesn't make sense!"

"You feeling any better?"

"Yeah. Fine."

Tim wasn't really paying attention, though. He was more than a little disconnected. He seemed completely unsettled by what was going on.

"Tim, why did you come here alone?"

"Because I had to."

"Why?"

"I knew it was the right thing to do...but it doesn't feel _wrong_ that you're here now...but why now? Why not before? Why not later? Why now? Tony, I don't _know_! I don't understand what's going on, why I'm supposed to be here, what's supposed to come of this. Greta showed up again and they kept saying all these things to me and I just don't get it!"

Then, Tony realized that Tim wasn't unsettled. He was scared. Terrified.

"What's to get? You fight off the creepy version of you and..."

"What do you mean?" Tim asked, looking around.

"That creepy you with no eyes."

Tim looked up at the sky.

"I thought I'd imagined him," he whispered. "I thought it was..." Then, he laughed.

"What?"

"A dream. ...but nothing is what it seems in dreams. Why would the dreamer be looking like me?"

"That's the dreamer?"

"Yes. Why? Why would it be that..." Tim rammed his clenched fist into the ground. "Why don't I _know_?"

Tim actually seemed a little unbalanced, Tony thought. It would make sense if he _had_ been, but...

Tim suddenly got to his feet and turned around in a circle. That gave Tony a chance to see the bleeding wound on his back, something that appeared to be nothing but was not going away...like his hand had been before...which _had_ had some effect even if it wasn't physical.

"Hey, Tim..." Tony said, reaching out to stop his movements.

Tim whirled around, he looked more than off balance. He looked crazy.

"Something's going on! I don't know what it is! But he's here and he's not going away. I'm not going away! I'm not going away!"

Suddenly, Tim punched Tony as hard as he could in the face and then ran off screeching that he wasn't going away.

Tony fell to the ground, more than a little dazed.

"Tony! What happened?"

Tony looked around. Darkness was gone. The fog was gone.

Tim was gone.

Gibbs was leaning over him.

"What happened?" Tony echoed.

"You disappeared and then you reappeared."

"Did you ever see Tim?"

"No. Was he there?"

"Yes...I thought he was...something's happened. Something went wrong."

"Where is he?"

Tony looked into the forest.

"In there...somewhere..."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim couldn't describe the assault on his senses. It was like the demon world had been only a million times more difficult to comprehend. Constant whispers kept him off balance. Changing scenes made him dizzy. Every step, he was both flying and plummeting to his death. He was struggling to get out of this miasma of chaos that had gripped him, but he couldn't find a way out. He was just running in the hopes of finding an exit.

...like in a dream.

That thought finally brought him to a stop. He closed his eyes against all the sensations. The chaos driving him insane. He couldn't stop hearing the whispers, but he could stop seeing what he saw and feeling those horrible moments.

Breathing heavily, he stopped and sat down on the ground, trying to think. What was going on? What was happening to him? This had started when Tony had pulled the knife out of his back...and he had started to bleed. Clearly, it wasn't a physical wound.

Something was draining out of him, though.

Tim put his hand over the place where the dreamer had stabbed him. He felt the blood. He pressed his hand tightly over the wound. Almost instantly, the whispers faded in intensity. He laughed a little.

"So my sanity is draining out of me? 'Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.'" Tim shook his head. T. S. Eliot was eloquent but he figured that, with the way his life had been, Melville was better. "'Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.'" How many people would say that he was completely and utterly insane if they knew what he knew?

As he sat very still, thinking, he became more calm, and the bleeding was lessened. But then, what was a dream if not the acting out of the illogical and, yes, insane parts of one's mind?

Tim's mind started leading him places he wasn't sure he wanted to go, but if he had to know this, then he would know it.

Tony had seen the dreamer as Tim himself...without eyes. Tim had seen him that way, as well. Everything he had done had been a manipulation of power, a use of it that Tim himself would not do but, if he were honest, was something he might wish he could try if he weren't so responsible.

Greta had said that dreams were real and that the dreamer himself didn't know why he was there.

...and then, what was that quote she had used? Goya.

"'Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.'"

If that was advice, then, Tim was officially terrified...and how would he manage this? ...and when had he abandoned fantasy?

"When reality became so frightening that fantasizing about anything seemed to be a bad way to go."

The longer he kept his hand pressed over his wound, the more calm, the more clear he felt...but being sane didn't help him feel any better about what he might have to do. He could almost _wish_ for the insanity because it would cover up the decision he had to make. In fact, it would make his decision impossible.

He wouldn't move until he felt sure that he was no longer bleeding...whatever he was bleeding.

_If I'm in a dream, then, knower or not, I should be able to have some control over what is around me._

Tim had never tried this before. He had never tried to control his dreams. He had tried to create reality, but not dreams, not like this. He kept his eyes closed and focused all of his being on making an impenetrable sanctuary, one secure from any intruder, even the dreamer. The confrontation would have to come, but not yet.

Suddenly, an image popped up in his head. Tim was certain that Tony would tease him mercilessly about it, and it wasn't even a Road picture.

Tim moved himself into a cross-legged pose, although with his hand still covering that injury. Then, he noticed that his other hand was clenched tightly over his tattoo. Perhaps, it was time to try to use that to help himself. He had let himself panic before, but now, with this increasing calm, he felt that this was the time to use his dragons to seal something other than a portal to the demon world. He just wasn't sure how it would feel.

He took a breath and unclenched his fist. His tattoo shivered in reaction. He was pulling his power in and getting ready to release it. They were always ready to be released. Slowly, he moved his hand to his back and then quickly switched hands. He took another breath and let it out in a whisper, a calling.

"Three into one."

As he exhaled he willed the power he held to seal up that wound.

It was like cautery, and it hurt...a lot. Still, Tim persisted until he felt as though it was no longer an open wound. Carefully, he lifted his hand off the wound and waited for any sensation to tell him that he was bleeding.

Nothing.

The seal was likely fragile, but he could now take the time he needed to take. He took another breath and held his hands out in front of him, imagining holding the world safe there. Then, he extended the image to hold himself...

...sitting beneath the Bodhi tree, separated from the dreamer's creations.

He didn't know how long he could stay here, but he knew it would be long enough for him to regain his perspective and prepare to face the dreamer...

...for the last time.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony looked around and noticed that everything was suddenly frozen.

"Boss, do you see–?"

He broke off when he realized that Gibbs was part of this.

Someone had stopped time.

"Tim?" he whispered. "Oh, I hope this is you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Tony walked forward in a world that seemed to be completely stopped. ...except for him. Why was he the exception? He knew that he had been an exception before, but...

"But I was already with the person stopping time."

Tony closed his eyes and tried to see if he could feel where Tim was. He opened his eyes once and looked at Gibbs, frozen in place, unable to help...nor to Watch.

"Okay. I've done this stuff by myself before...so not having Gibbs shouldn't be any more of a problem now than before."

That wasn't comforting.

He closed his eyes and started waiting to feel that indescribable tugging that seemed to be his connection to the supernatural world.

He felt nothing.

"Come on, Tim. I know you've got to be out there somewhere. The real you, not the freaky holes for eyes you."

There was no indication of direction, but Tony started to walk. He couldn't just hang out here. Something more had to happen. He kept his eyes closed although that terrified him. What if the freaky not!Tim showed up and he didn't see him in time? Still, he had found something that didn't exist with his eyes closed. Maybe he could find Tim without seeing him, too. He'd done that before. In the demon world, he had taken a step and been right where Tim was, just because...of whatever reason Tim had told him.

So he walked blindly through the trees...and never ran into anything. Weird.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim kept breathing slowly, in and out, waiting for his wound to heal enough that he wasn't conscious of it. He sat where he was, beneath the Bodhi tree, keeping himself calm as he thought about what was possibly coming for him. What would it do if he won? What if he lost?

Which would be worse?

Another deep breath. Tim realized that he hadn't taken the time like this just to sit and calmly think about what could be coming. He had flown headlong into it and then tried to set it aside without thinking about it. Now, for the first time, he was really thinking about what he might have to do. The sacrifices he would have to make. Rhian had been right when she told him that he had a destiny. It wasn't because he had no other choice. Nothing was forcing him, but he couldn't possibly _not_ take it on once he knew who and what he was.

"If I don't do this, who will?"

That was the question. So even though he didn't want to be important, didn't want to be the one who had to take this task on, he was, and he'd do his best to reset the balance between the supernatural realm and the real world before the earth cracked beneath the strain.

Another deep breath.

Suddenly, a sound penetrated his sanctuary.

"Tim! Come on! You've got to be here somewhere!"

Tony. Tim sighed. He couldn't keep hiding from Tony, not with him shouting so that he could wake the dead...or something that had never lived in the first place. He lifted his hands and imagined the world there. He slowly got to his feet and turned around. He set the world gently down beneath the tree and then stepped out of the sanctuary. Hopefully, the world would be safe there. He turned back and saw Tony walking around.

...with his eyes closed?

Tim stepped out of his sanctuary.

"Tony, I'm right here," he said softly.

Tony stopped, turned and opened his eyes. He smiled with relief and then looked angry, then worried and then irritated and then back to relief again.

"Where have you been? What happened to you?"

Tim smiled a little.

"I was going insane for a while, but I'm better now."

Tony raised his eyebrows expressively.

"You aren't kidding."

"No, I'm not...but I'm feeling better."

"Okay...so why is everything, including Gibbs, frozen?"

"Gibbs? What is Gibbs doing here?"

"Watching. That's his job."

"Huh?"

Tony smiled with some triumph.

"I love it when I know something you don't know! Gibbs said that he's a Watcher. His job is to see what of the stuff that we do or other...supernatural...people...do...is visible to normal people. ...or something like that. He kind of...tagged along...but you froze him when you froze everything else."

Tim shrugged.

"I can't really control who gets frozen and who doesn't."

"But I'm not frozen."

Tim shrugged helplessly again.

"I don't know that part, Tony."

"...but you know what you're doing here?"

Tim nodded.

"Yeah."

"Well, that doesn't sound good."

"It's not...but it's necessary."

"What are you going to do?"

Tim smiled. "Promise you won't freak out?"

"No."

Tim laughed.

"Please?"

"No way, man. If you're asking, then it's something that you think is going to freak me out. No way am I going to promise not to do what you think I'm going to do anyway."

"Okay."

"What are you doing to do?" Tony asked.

Tim hesitated and looked back toward his sanctuary with some longing. It had been so quiet in there...like Superman's Fortress of Solitude, a place he could escape.

_Only I'm not Superman._

"Come on, Tim. You have to tell me. No way am I going to let you avoid it now."

"I didn't want you here, you know. Even when I wasn't sure what was going on, I still didn't want you here. This is going to be dangerous. I might lose."

"You have to kill the dreamer, then?"

Tim shook his head.

"No. Not kill him."

"Then, what?"

"I have to...I don't how to describe it. I have to...absorb him...into myself."

Tony took a step back and looked at Tim as if he were crazy.

"Are you out of your mind? What are you saying? No way!"

"It's the _only_ way, Tony. You know what's coming. I won't be ready if I only know what's real. I have to know the dreams, too. ...and it's not a coincidence that the dreamer looks like me. I just...I don't know what will happen when I do this...if I can. I don't think he'll be happy about it, either."

"How _are_ you going to do...this?"

"I'm sure it will come to me when it's time," Tim said with a weak smile.

"No."

"Tony, it has to be this way. It would probably be better if you hid in the...the place I set up."

"What place?"

"My sanctuary. That's where the world is."

"Huh?"

Tim's smile was more genuine this time.

"It's a dream, Tony. It doesn't have to make sense."

"If you say so."

"Exactly."

Tim looked around and closed his eyes. He knew the dreamer had to be here still. They had both been drawn to this spot at the same time, but neither of them had known why. He knew now, but he didn't know _who_ it was, unless it had been Greta. Did the dreamer know? Is that why he couldn't see him?

Maybe they were _both_ trapped in this place until it was over. Tim got the feeling that he wouldn't be able to leave until he had done what was required.

"Tim?"

Tim opened his eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really have to do this?"

"Yes."

Tony took a deep breath.

"Okay. Then, just don't get yourself killed...or annihilated...or destroyed...or whatever other word you people use."

Tim smiled. "It's not in my plans."

"Do you need me out of the way?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"Yes."

"Okay." Tony sighed. "Where's your little sanctuary?"

Tim took Tony by the arm and then stepped back into his sanctuary.

"Whoa! What's this?"

"It's the Bodhi tree. Saw it in a movie."

Tony smiled. "Isn't that _my_ line?"

"I don't know if you would have watched this movie."

"What is it?"

"Not a Road picture."

"I know that much. No Bodhi tree for Bob and Bing."

"It's called _Little Buddha_. Keanu Reeves...as Siddhartha."

"What?"

"It's about the Buddha...and some little kids."

"Okay..."

"The Road pictures are more fun."

"And I'll be safe in here?"

"Maybe. _That_ is something I _don't_ know. I can't know that part because this is only a dream. Maybe a dreamer can penetrate this place. I don't know."

"You need help I can give...you ask for it, Tim. I mean it. I don't want to sit in here and watch you get hammered."

"Okay. I will."

Tim turned around and stepped out of the sanctuary...back into the dreamer's world. As he stepped out, that thought put him on his guard. This was a place where he wasn't making the rules. The dreamer was. ...and as long as he was, Tim was at a disadvantage.

_I'm done with being at a disadvantage. If we're dreaming, then I can dream, too._

Tim looked around. There was still the lake that didn't belong there. The chaotic sky and the edge of insanity that lined this whole world.

He wasn't going to accept that any longer. The dreamer wouldn't come out if he still felt he was in control because he'd felt some of Tim's power before. Tim would have to shake his assurance.

Tim looked around. What was he going to change first?

The lake. The dreamer kept using the water against him. That would go first.

Tim stared hard at the lake. Then, he closed his eyes and thought about changing the lake.

"Let's have a mountain," he said softly.

Tim opened his eyes and smiled. There was a mountain where the lake had been.

"NO!"

The screech hurt his ears, but the dreamer had felt the change...or seen it. Tim knew he'd be coming.

He just hoped he was ready for the confrontation.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Tim smiled and turned around. There he was. The dreamer.

It was himself without eyes. Eyes see the world, take in reality and he didn't have that. Tim knew that he would have to deal with that. Fantasy didn't have reality to temper the...the monsters. He had no eyes.

As horrific as the image of himself without eyes was, Tim forced himself to focus on it. If this really was some aspect of himself, then he should be able to anticipate. Even if it wasn't, there was no reason that they shouldn't be evenly matched.

...if he could force some reality in here.

" _Mine!"_

"Not anymore," Tim said. "If you're going to keep trying, you'll have to face me head-on. No more sneaking around. No more hiding in the shadows. I can dream, too."

The dreamer raised his hands over his head and tipped his face into the sky. As he did so, the world began to shift and change. Tim could see the change coming and he braced himself for impact.

The wind hit him and knocked him backward.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony winced as he saw the strangely colored wind beat Tim back. The dreamer laughed and came on with the wind whipping around him, his eyeless face never turning from his goal. Tim pushed back suddenly, waving his arms and producing a bright green light that somehow drove the dreamer back. Tim had never really done that before...but then, this was apparently a dream. So...it was possibly logical that Tim could do things he shouldn't be able to do.

Maybe.

Suddenly, there was a ripple...of the entire area and it became a desert wasteland. The dreamer screamed in anger. Another ripple and he and Tim were falling into the ocean. They hit the water and the waves began to churn madly. Before Tony could do more than inhale, there was another rippling of the world and it became a mountain valley with sharp spires stretching toward the heavens, shooting stars lighting up the sky and, somehow, lightning flashing over and over again. In each flash, he could see Tim and the dreamer circling ever closer to each other. Neither had physically attacked the other yet.

...but could that even happen? They were in a dream...only not.

Then, the dreamer swung his arm and there was a whirlwind of fire that sprang out of nowhere, enveloping Tim in it. Tony could hear Tim start to scream and the walls of his sanctuary shook.

_I can't stand here and watch this, Tim!_

To his surprise, there was a reply, faint and shaky.

_You can control your dreams, Tony..._

What? What did that mean? This wasn't Tony's dream. What could Tony do about it?

Then, he had a thought. Dreams. Tim had made his own dream fight off that of the dreamer. Maybe Tony could do the same thing.

_But I'm not a knower, Tim! I'm not a dreamer! I'm just a plain old normal guy._

_Try..._

Tony tried to think of something that would change things...and he had a thought cross his mind. It was utterly and completely ridiculous, but it was something he could imagine in perfect detail. Well, what did he have to lose besides his life or the world? Nothing.

Tony smiled and closed his eyes.

...and then, opened his eyes and laughed.

The dreamscape had turned into a cartoon. A big bucket of water appeared out of thin air and poured over the fire, dousing it completely.

Tim and the dreamer both stopped and looked around in surprise. Tony saw a little smile on Tim's face as he realized what had just happened.

" _Who did that?"_

Tim took the opportunity presented and launched himself at the dreamer. He wasn't ready for the physical attack and Tim made contact. In fact, he barreled into the dreamer and knocked him to the ground. As soon as he did, the sanctuary vanished...but the world didn't. Tony turned around and saw it rolling away. Wondering if this was what he needed to do, Tony dove for the world and picked it up. He stared at it for a moment. It was strangely heavy and when he looked at it, he seemed to zoom in and he thought he could see...movement. The waves on the ocean...

_I'm holding the world in my hands._

Tony was completed distracted for a moment by the fact that it appeared that he was _really_ holding the world.

 _Why can't I feel myself shaking the world?_ Tony thought wildly for a moment.

...and then, another ripple of reality shook him out of his shock.

The cartoon world was gone, but what replaced it was nothing Tony could comprehend. It was changing every second as the dreamer screamed long and loud and Tim refused to let him go. Tony didn't know what would happen if Tim won, but he guessed that it would be very obvious.

...and what would happen to the world if Tim lost?

He didn't know...but right now, he could see that there was nothing he could do. It was all about Tim confronting the dreamer.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim held on as the dreamer struggled to get away. He hadn't been able to preserve the sanctuary once he'd managed to get a hold of the dreamer. Too many things going on in his mind at once and he'd drop all of them. So he dropped one, knowing that Tony could likely deal with the loss of a hiding place.

Then, he struggled to get his hand onto the dreamer's chest. He needed to stop him from fighting. He could feel the power the dreamer was exerting. It was like a constant wind beating him back. He had stopped looking at the landscape. Nothing of it mattered to what he was trying to do.

He pushed the dreamer flat on his back and then managed to get his tattooed palm on the center of his chest...over where the heart of a real person would be.

The dreamer became stiff, momentarily stunned by the contact. Tim was breathing heavily as he forced the dreamer to his feet, all the while keeping that contact steady. Then, he forced himself to look into those bottomless depths. He had to be willing to surrender himself to the endless depths of dreams if he was going to master them.

He kept the dreamer's holes in his gaze. As he stared, the holes seemed to get larger and larger and Tim knew he was liable to fall right into them. He had to surrender without giving himself up. As he stared and stared, he could almost swear that the world was getting smaller. It was boiling down to Tim and the dreamer and nothing else.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The swirling wind began to curl around Tim and the dreamer, and Tony wasn't sure what it meant. Did it mean that Tim was winning? Was he losing? Was it neither one?

He took a step forward, still holding the world tightly.

The wind was now just around them. The air was spinning so quickly that Tony couldn't see through it...but he noticed that Tim's eyes were starting to glow green, even as the dreamer's eyes were still those empty holes.

He took another step toward the pair.

Tim's tattooed hand appeared to be stuck to the dreamer's chest. They were as frozen as Gibbs had been.

"Tim..." Tony whispered and reached out toward them.

_Wait..._

Okay. Tony stood there, waiting to see what would come of this, hoping that it would be okay.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim felt himself being lost in the world of dreams. He had always hated having nightmares as a child. Every time one had come at him, he had been unable to deal with it and had taken hours to fall asleep again. He didn't like the dreams...and the dreamer had horrific ones.

...but he had to avoid _fighting_ them. He had to be able to harness them and change them, not fight them.

_I am the dreamer! It is mine!_

Tim heard the declaration in his head. The dreamer was inside him...or was he inside the dreamer?

"No. We cannot have the one without the other. We're both needed...together. In one. You can't see. I can't dream...not like you. We need each other."

_No! Mine! My dreams! My world!_

The dreamer tried to pull away, but Tim wouldn't allow it. Now was the time. He had to take the step that frightened him. He had to take the step that would lead to something he didn't know and couldn't understand until it happened.

Taking a deep breath, he gathered the power he held and called it to him in a shout that pierced the dreams.

"Three into one!"

Instantly, Tim felt himself pulled apart...into three aspects of himself. His three selves surrounded the dreamer, each with a tattooed hand that was no longer just touching the dreamer but was penetrating the chest...meeting in the middle.

"Mind...body...heart..."

Tim paused...and there was a timeless moment when he looked at himself, looked at the dreamer...and he understood.

"Dreams..." he whispered.

He might as well have screamed it out. The dreamer spasmed and then split...into three dreamers. Each one was absorbed into one of the three Tims.

The joining of the dreamer into himself was a shock. More than a shock, Tim felt as though his mind was on fire with the force of the dreams unloaded as his three selves came back into one...with the dreamer inside them...inside him.

Tim stiffened and fell backwards, his tattooed hand now pointing at the sky. A surge of power that was like the worst agony he'd ever felt surged through him and he screamed.

His dragons burst out of his palm and writhed, the colors changing and and glowing and ebbing. They became first larger and then smaller. Then, they were one with three heads...then, three bodies and one head...and then, three dragons again. They swirled around each other as if they were a pile of snakes.

Their chaos was merely a reflection of Tim's own torment as he felt himself being changed and taken over and then not and then buried beneath insane visions and then alone in an abyss. There was no one moment of clarity. The understanding he'd found was gone. All he had left was the madness of what he had done. He felt himself being lost under the force of the onslaught.

...and then...

...not suddenly...

...gradually...

He felt a hand on his arm. A hand on his wrist. A hand reaching through the madness and grounding him in something else.

Reality.

A voice.

"Tim...can you hear me?"

Reality.

His dragons began to swirl around each other, the colors were the same and yet different. They had a more...metallic quality to them. They were harder, perhaps more powerful than they'd been before. Maybe.

"Please...I don't know what to do."

The dragons returned to his palm, taking up their place as the tattoo that had done more than mark him as a knower.

The hand was still there.

Reality began to spread.

There was more than a hand. More than a voice.

Tim blinked...and there was a sky.

He blinked again and he felt the ground beneath him.

Another blink and there was...

"Tony."

A relieved smile.

"Please...can you do something with this world? It's making me really nervous."

Another blink and Tim could feel himself again. The surge of dreams and visions was ebbing away...to a place within him. He wasn't sure he liked having it there, but it was and he couldn't change that now.

Tim looked at Tony.

"Can you hold it for a little while longer?"

"I guess so. It's kind of...freaky, you know."

Tim nodded.

"You're telling me."

"What just happened?" Tony asked.

"The dreamer...is a part of me...now."

"Why?"

"Because I need that...when I have to put the world back together again...because I broke it."

"Can you sit up? I don't like seeing you lying around like that. It's too close to you being dead."

"Help me?" Tim asked.

Tony nodded, shuffled the world to his other hand and then pulled Tim into a sitting position. Tim looked around and saw a clearing in the woods. No lake. No cliff. No fire. Just trees, a clear sky overhead.

...with nothing moving.

"How long can you keep it like this?"

"As long as I need to," Tim said.

Tony settled down beside him.

"Explain...please."

"I told you before that I broke the boundary between the real world and the supernatural world when I destroyed Mongothsberd. That's why I could have the personification of Darkness hovering over me."

"We saw it, too."

"That shouldn't exist, Tony. It's not _real_ , but Mongothsberd shouldn't have been real, either. ...but I made it real and then I destroyed it. By doing that, I mixed up the line between reality and fantasy, if you want to call it that. I had to do it because the world couldn't have tolerated Mongothsberd forever, either. ...but I also made it worse. I can't fix it until it breaks, but I have to fix it, and I'm not ready to do that, not on my own, but it has to be me because I'm the one who had the power to break it. So I have to use that same power to fix it. I don't how much of all of this is due to Greta pulling the strings, but I'm sure she's involved in it somehow."

Tony looked mistrustful for a moment and he stared at the world he was holding in his hands.

"We're not fully in dreams anymore, Tony, but as soon as I set the world moving again, we'll be out, back in the real world."

"What about Gibbs?"

"I don't know who makes the Watchers. I didn't even know anything about them...but they're doing their part to keep these places separated, to keep things that shouldn't be existing in the real world from...breaking reality by being here. Darkness...Death...Sleep...even Dreams. These are things that are just _concepts_ , but they've been given life...existence...and reality can't take that."

Tony looked at the world for a few more seconds and then looked at Tim.

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"When you fix this...problem...you've taken the dreamer inside yourself, you said. You have those dragons on your hand. You have all this power, Tim. What will happen to you if you separate reality and...and fantasy again? You're in both, aren't you?"

"I am...but I don't know what will happen. I just know that, no matter what happens, it's not bad enough to sacrifice all of reality for one person."

Tim smiled a little and then held out his hands. Tony gave the world back to him, looking more than a little relieved not to be holding it. Tim looked at the world, closed his eyes and imagined it moving once again. The world vanished.

Tim felt the soft breeze and heard the trees moving gently. He smiled.

"I can't believe you can do that," Tony said.

"I shouldn't be able to."

"But you do it."

"Because I have to."

Tony got to his feet and then held out his hand. Tim hesitated and then let Tony pull him to his feet. Slowly, the two men started back toward the road.

"Why?" Tony asked.

"Because I'm just trying to keep things moving along for as long as I can. Do you remember when I told you that I hoped that my one interaction with that other world was my last, that I could wait and pass it off to some other knower?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I can't do that. It's going to happen. Soon. When it does, I just hope that I can protect the world from the things I'll have to do to save it. If I can't, then, the world will be conscious of supernatural world and I don't know what will happen."

"I guess we'll have to make sure it doesn't, then."

"Yeah."

"Tony! McGee!"

They looked over and saw Gibbs walking toward them.

"Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm...really glad that I picked you to be part of this."

"Really? I figured you just worked with what you had at hand."

"I did...at first, but not now."

"Thanks, McGee."

Tim grinned. "I don't know of any other person whose dream would have been a Looney Tunes cartoon."

Tony laughed. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Definitely got our attention."

"What happened?" Gibbs demanded.

Tony smiled.

"Some Watcher _you_ are, Boss. You missed the whole thing!"

_Thwack!_

"That's what's supposed to happen," Gibbs said, although he seemed rather unhappy with that fact. "You all right, McGee?"

"Yeah. More or less."

"More...or less?"

"Less right now. I'll be fine tomorrow."

"Okay. We'll tell Ziva that you were sick...if she even remembers to ask."

"I don't think she will."

"Good," Tony said, fervently. "I don't want to have to explain what happened to her."

"She wouldn't believe it anyway. Boss?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm feeling kind of shaky right now. Would you mind if Tony drove my car back to my place?"

"You'll be okay there?"

"Yeah. I will. I just need to sleep...and dream."

"Dream?"

"Yeah. I can't tell you more than that."

"Yeah, I know."

He gestured and they walked back to the road...where Tim's car and Gibbs' car were both sitting, completely unaffected by the events that had occurred.

"So..." Tony said. "...all of it was just a dream?"

"Not _just_ ," Tim said. "But yes, it was a dream."

"Then, if that's the kind of thing we have to face, I'm glad you've got the dreamer working for you."

Tim nodded slightly, but it wasn't that simple...as Tony would discover the first time Tim tapped into the dreamer's power. For now, however, it was okay to have it be over. They went back to DC and found that the world had missed everything that had happened.

As it should have.


	7. Chapter 7

**Epilogue**

_Three days later..._

Tim sat...beneath the Bodhi tree, breathing in and out. He hoped that this wouldn't be considered sacrilegious since only the Buddha really sat there, at least so far as he knew. It just gave him a feeling of peace and peace was getting harder and harder to come by as the final event came closer and closer.

His phone rang.

Tim sighed and banished the image, got off his bed and answered.

"Hey, Tony."

" _You know what I'm going to say."_

Tim smiled. "I'm ready. Which one?"

" _I think we'd better go for_ Road to Utopia _this time. We've watched the first three."_

"Okay. I'll be right over."

" _How are you doing, Tim?"_

"I'm all right...and I'm ready to watch the next Road picture."

" _I'll have popcorn ready."_

"Great."

Tim hung up the phone and hurried out. Tony would probably never realize it, but watching these movies with him had become the reward Tim craved after each brush with the supernatural world. Perhaps he didn't know what would come of it all.

...but if there was still a DVD player and a TV available afterwards, Tim knew that he and Tony would watch Bing Crosby and Bob Hope bumble their way through another adventure.

...and maybe do a little bit of patty-cake on their way.

FINIS!


End file.
